San Fu Tuan was born in Tienstin, China on May 14, 1932. Tuan received a bachelors degree and masters degree from the University of Oxford, and in 1958 received a Ph.D in theoretical physics from the University California at Berkerley. When the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa [UHM] decided to expand its physics program in the early 1960s, Mānoa physicist Vincent Peterson invited Tuan and Peter Dobson to start a theoretical energy group at UHM. Additionally, Tuan and Peterson organized biennial conferences on various physics topics from 1965 to 1985.

Tuan is most famous for editing the work of Jun John Sakurai after his untimely passing. Sakurai, a theoretical physics professor at the University of California Berkley, had assisted Tuan on his dissertation while working towards his own masters degree at Cornell. They both focused their papers on K-nucleon dispersion relations.

Tuan remained a professor at UHM until he retired with Emeritus status in 2002. During his time at the University, Tuan kept in contact with friends and family still living in China and Taiwan, and maintained an active interest in relationships between China, Taiwan, and the United States. Throughout his career he wrote to politicians and newspaper editors offering his views on international relations policies, and his papers document the tumultuous history of China and Taiwan from the 1970s through the early 2000s.